Vuescan change request

[Bruceh]

I'm starting to setup for scanning hundreds of my fathers old
photographs. He has a myriad of print sizes, color/BW, as well
as some 120 negatives and I expect to have configuration
files saved for each.

It would be nice if Vuescan can:
* Display the name of the configuration on the title bar
* Somehow indicate that the configuration has changed
- e.g. add "(Modified)" to the title bar.
to remind me that I should save to a new configuration file.
* Have an option to start Vuescan:
- vuescan.ini
- the last ini file manually loaded
- a fixed ini filename
* Allow fast change of configuration by dragging an INI
file from explorer onto the Vuescan window.


TIA

bruceh

 

[Guillaume Dargaud]

All your requests make perfect sense to me.
May I add some ?

- move the crop window around without changing its size. This could be done
by clicking anywhere within it (away from the borders or from the Focus
target) and dragging. Convenient when you want to keep the same file size.

- there's no 'Generic' B&W film. I'm currently scanning Fuji Acros 100 and
Fuji Neopan 400 and all the B&W predefined settings pretty much suck for
those. At random I found a decent color one.

- a harder one now: for films inserted in a strip reader, it's probably not
too hard to set the [Frame Offset] automatically by looking at when there's
actually something on the scanned line. Or have a right-click option on the
preview with [Set Offset Here].

- And yet another change request for the UIR: the right side should be a set
of inner windows. The classic ones that can be cascaded, tiled, overlaped...
With auto resize for the scans, previews or histograms within. This way one
can compare Scan and preview. Or act on the histogram while seeing the
result. Alternatively the histograms could be in a pop-up window.

Now a more general question. The focus is done on one point of the image,
but recently I scanned slides that had a lot of curvature (probably due to
poor mounts). The sides of the scans were completely out of focus. What's
the best way to have the entire image in focus ?

 

[Ed Hamrick]

All your requests make perfect sense to me.
May I add some ?

It's more effective to e-mail them to (e-mail address removed),
as described in detail on:

http://www.hamrick.com/sup.html

- move the crop window around without changing its size. This could be done
by clicking anywhere within it (away from the borders or from the Focus
target) and dragging. Convenient when you want to keep the same file size.

You can already do this by holding down the shift key.

Regards,
Ed Hamrick

 

[Bart van der Wolf]

SNIP

Now a more general question. The focus is done on one point
of the image, but recently I scanned slides that had a lot of curvature
(probably due to poor mounts). The sides of the scans were
completely out of focus. What's the best way to have the entire
image in focus ?

Unless you use a glass-carrier or you frame the film in a slideframe with
(anti-Newton) glass, the film (which should be stored flat) will have some
curl. If you scan a curled film, you should try and use the depth of field
of the scanner optics. This usually means that you need to focus
approximately at 50-60% from the Center to the Edge of your crop area. This
assumes a convex film curl as seen from the scanner optics.

Bart

 

[Guillaume Dargaud]

Unless you use a glass-carrier or you frame the film in a slideframe with

(anti-Newton) glass, the film (which should be stored flat) will have some
curl. If you scan a curled film, you should try and use the depth of field
of the scanner optics. This usually means that you need to focus
approximately at 50-60% from the Center to the Edge of your crop area. This
assumes a convex film curl as seen from the scanner optics.

Thanks for the answer

I know some slide projectors have (expensive) lenses that take the assumed
curvature (usually only of a specific film like Kodachrome) into effect. I
wondered if there were similar things built into some scanners.
How much is the depth of field of a film scanner ? Is there a way to know ?

Glass mounts, maybe but I've never liked them: way too much dust. I fought
with it for years on my old B&W enlarger. It was impossible to keep
dust-free. And the anti-newton looses a lot of definition. I assume there'd
be the same problems with slides. Good normal mounts can help alleviate the
problem but the shop mounted all my last batch of rolls with cheap mounts
(the kind that inserts sideways).

 

[Guillaume Dargaud]

You can already do this by holding down the shift key.
Ooops, dumb question of the day...

 

[Bart van der Wolf]

SNIP

How much is the depth of field of a film scanner ?
Is there a way to know ?

Only by trial and error, but VueScan can help with that.
1. You can determine the depth of field needed, by setting the focusing to
Manual. This will reveal the current setting. Now drag the focus indicator
to a corner of the crop area and (for Windows) hit CTRL U or use the menu
Scanner|Focus, and record the focus setting. Repeat for the center of the
crop area.
Now you probably know the maximum depth difference. Roughly half of it is
what needs to be above/below the focus plane.
2. To save some scanning time, choose a very small crop area, and set the
Crop|Preview area to "Crop box" (don't forget to set it to default again
when you're done).
Focus on a (grainy) piece of film with Preview resolution set to Full (or
the maximum for your scanner).
Now you can type values in the Manual focus text box, do another Preview,
and see how much difference up and down from best focus you can tolerate
(for your final output size !). Make sure that the film didn't change shape
while heating-up by doing another forced auto focus (you should get
approximately the same value as you did earlier).

Bart

 

[Wilfred van der Vegte]

Guillaume Dargaud wrote:

How much is the depth of field of a film scanner ? Is there a way to know ?

Interesting issue. My previous scanner, a Minolta DSS 2800 had plenty
DOF, so that it didn't even need autofocus. No problems with curved
surfaces either. I suspect its optics were more expensive (at that time,
the scanner cost almost twice as much as what a DSE 5400 costs now) and
nowadays the combination of AF with cheaper optics seems to be favored
by manufacturers.
BTW, Nikon scanners from the same era as the DSS 2800 were already
equipped with AF.